Even with Maximum Security idle, Servis aims for big prizes on Belmont Day

ELMONT, N.Y. – Before he stepped into the national spotlight with Maximum Security, trainer Jason Servis developed two other horses with humble beginnings into Grade 1 winners. While Maximum Security, disqualified from first in the May 4 Kentucky Derby, will be in his Monmouth Park barn Saturday afternoon, Servis will be at Belmont Park to saddle Firenze Fire and World of Trouble in a pair of Grade 1 stakes on the undercard of the Belmont Stakes.

Firenze Fire, a Florida-bred with a modest pedigree who finished 11th in the 2018 Kentucky Derby, will be one of several contenders in a loaded $1.2 million Metropolitan Handicap. World of Trouble, who made his debut in a $25,000 claiming race for another trainer, will attempt to win the $400,000 Jaipur Invitational on turf and become a dual-surface Grade 1 winner.

Firenze Fire is a son of Poseidon’s Warrior, a Grade 1 winner who in his first year at stud in 2014 stood for $6,500 at Pleasant Acres Farm in Ocala, Fla. Ron Lombardi bred the mare My Every Wish, whom he and Servis claimed for $16,000 but were never able to race, to Poseidon’s Warrior, the resulting foal being Firenze Fire.

On June 18, 2017, Firenze Fire won his debut at Monmouth Park, and five weeks later, he took the Grade 3 Sanford at Saratoga.

“He didn’t show much [early] as a 2-year-old. I was surprised that day he won,” Servis said of the colt’s debut. “When he won the Sanford, then I thought, ‘Man, what have we got here?’ ”

Firenze Fire finished fourth in the Grade 1 Hopeful at Saratoga but came back with a monster performance to win the Grade 1 Champagne at Belmont over 11 rivals. That would be a harbinger of what was to come for Firenze Fire at Belmont Park.

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Lombardi felt he might never get a horse good enough to run in the Kentucky Derby, and in the winter of 2018, he had Servis take the New York route to get Firenze Fire there. Firenze Fire, in his fifth race of the year, finished 11th in the Kentucky Derby. A brief freshening ensued.

When Firenze Fire returned to the races, he ran the best race of his life to win the Grade 3 Dwyer by nine lengths, his second start at Belmont.

“If he didn’t run any good in the Dwyer, he probably would have gotten the rest of the year off,” Servis said.

Firenze Fire ran three more times at 3, winning the Grade 3 Gallant Bob at six furlongs, sandwiched between a third in the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens and a fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, where he was kept closer to the pace than needed.

Firenze Fire got a break at Sequel Bloodstock, a farm in Ocala. In his 4-year-old debut on March 31, he finished third in a sprint stakes restricted to Florida-breds at Tampa Bay Downs. Six weeks later, he returned to Belmont Park with another strong performance, winning the Runhappy Stakes by 4 3/4 lengths.

At Tampa, Servis said, “We knew the horse wasn’t tight, but I wanted to run. You think about getting a race under a horse, and you’re doing it at Tampa. . . . I think he got a lot out of it.”

Though the Met Mile has come up with a spectacular field, Firenze Fire is 3 for 3 at Belmont, with two wins coming at a mile.

“I didn’t dwell on who’s in there, who’s not in there. The horse is doing good, and we’re running,” Servis said.

On Aug. 10, 2017, at Gulfstream Park, World of Trouble won a maiden $25,000 claiming race by 14 lengths for trainer Kathleen O’Connell. Michael Dubb and Mike Caruso’s Bethlehem Stables purchased the horse for $160,000 and left him with O’Connell for the $200,000 Affirmed Stakes, in which World of Trouble finished second. As was the plan when Dubb bought him, World of Trouble was moved to Servis.

“He went to Ocala for [a break] after the stakes, and when I got him, I had him for a day and he went lame,” Servis said. “It looked like a foot. It was a real nightmare for a couple of weeks. I just got him; it was hard for me to tell the owners the horse is lame. Nothing went right for the first two or three weeks, but then we got into a groove with those open gallops.”

In his first start for Servis in January 2018, World of Trouble rolled to a 13 3/4-length victory in the Pasco Stakes at Tampa. In the obligatory attempt at stretching out to see if he was Kentucky Derby material, World of Trouble finished third in the Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby.

Cut back in distance, World of Trouble finished fourth in the Woody Stephens, pressing one of the hottest early paces in memory at Belmont. World of Trouble was entered in the Amsterdam at Saratoga when he spiked a temperature and had to be scratched.

Dubb mentioned the Quick Call Stakes, a 5 1/2-furlong turf race at Saratoga, to Servis for the colt’s next race. Despite the race being run over yielding turf, World of Trouble won by 1 3/4 lengths. He would win the Allied Forces, a six-furlong race on Belmont turf, before trying the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint.

In the Breeders’ Cup, World of Trouble came out on the short end of a neck decision behind Stormy Liberal. His 118 Beyer Speed Figure earned that day ranks among the best for a horse who lost.

World of Trouble ended his 3-year-old season with a win in a restricted stakes at Tampa. After winning another off-the-turf stakes at Gulfstream, World of Trouble won the Grade 1 Carter on dirt at Aqueduct.

World of Trouble went back to turf in the Grade 2 Turf Sprint at Churchill Downs, winning by 3 3/4 lengths.

“That’s a really special horse, I really do think that,” Servis said. “It’d be nice to get a Grade 1 on turf.”